The weather suddenly turned. It had gone from clear blue skies and scorching sun, to torrential rain and storms in the space of hours. Weather warnings were out all up the east coast for the next week. Brilliant. Just brilliant. We only have a week left and it was going to be a wet one.
Monday morning came round and we woke to pouring rain. That made putting the tent away even more fun than it normally is. Not. The worst part was that at some point in the night, the air bed got a hole in it so for the most part it felt like I was rolling around in a bowl of jelly! It didn’t make for a very good nights sleep that’s for sure!
Everything was just wet, including us as we eventually got into the car. The plan? Find an Airbnb for the next couple of nights to wait out this bloody weather. We found one in Coes Creek which was perfect. Just a private room with the second floor of the house pretty much to ourselves. After contacting our hosts we could check in that morning.
The car was filthy so we set about trying to locate a service station with a vacuum to clean out the interior of the car. You’d be amazed how many places don’t have one! We must have driven from one to another for about an hour only to find one just up the road from where we’d be staying.
Car clean and us $4 poorer we ventured off to our home for the next two days. It was beautiful. We managed to sort out our luggage too and repack everything before heading out to the historic town of Montville.
The town was so historic and has less than 900 people living there. Situated on the Sunshine Coast, there was no sunshine around anywhere! 
It was first established in 1887 and was predominantly a logging/farming community. There are still historic markers left all over this small town today. The shops are quaint and the whole place reminded me of somewhere where the whole town knows each other. The place you’d go next door to your neighbour if you ran out of sugar. Have a good old natter with Betty over the white picket fence. 
It was lovely. We aimlessly wandered in an out of the shops for a few hours before stopping at a restaurant with a cracking view. 
We found a lookout on our way out of the town too which had views as far as the eye could see. Montville is 400m above sea level and we felt that climbing up steep hills as we entered the town! It was beautiful. 
From there, we located the hidden gem that is Gardener’s Falls. A stunning river leading into a waterfall complete with two rope swings. It was the perfect place to relax and soak up a bit of sun through the rain clouds. 
It was beautiful as we sat and chilled, watching these crazy people swinging, somersaulting and diving from the rope swing. Had we actually had swim stuff, we’d have had a go! It was awesome.
Feeling like we had made the most of the not so great weather, we headed back to sit and have tea and cake with Helen and Bill whilst exchanging travel stories. A delightful way to end the evening. 
The following morning we casually woke up and I made a cup of tea before doing a spot more research in my Australia book. Helen came out and said she would get or breakfast started! Breakfast!???? In an Airbnb???
Oh my goodness, it was delicious (no I didn’t eat the mushrooms!!) It was some sort of tomato, chickpea, beans, bacon mix and was honestly delicious. Nathan, being more fussy than me, picked at it and I finished it off 😊!
It was pissing down with rain as it seemed to be the way the weather was going for us. So. Where else to go other than the beach? To begin with though, we had to change the sodding front tyre as it had a bulge in it. 
I have actually changed a wheel before but I was only allowed to tighten the nut things once the new wheel was on. Can’t say I don’t offer!!
Mooloolaba beach was a bit like Bondi and Manly but on a smaller, wetter scale. There were shops and cafes and restaurants lining the promenade. 
The rain got heavier and heavier and eventually the thunder and lightning joined in. At times the whole sky lit up. We headed back to Helen and Bill’s but not before stopping at Westfields shopping mall to see if we could seek out any Christmas presents for those back home.
Helen and Bill were out that evening so we had the house to ourselves. What better way to spend it than watching David Attenborough eating $5 dominos pizza, listening to the roar of thunder outside…
Until next time…